Sunday, November 17, 2013

So...Did the Free Comic Book Day Mini-Event for Halloween Make Much of an Impact At All?

We are all the way here in mid-November and I have quite the back-log of comics due to life being busy. I was looking at some stuff I needed to read and noticed a few of those free comics that came out to sort of tie-in with Halloween, and it led to my above question. I don't blame you if you have little idea what I'm talking about, because even though Free Comic Book Day (FCBD) is a big deal on the first Saturday in May every year, this whole October-free-comics-business seems to gets minimal acknowledgement.

I was thinking about the Halloween ComicFest that happened now, and how it barely made an impact. I mean seriously, this year folk were still talking about FCBD a month after it had happened. They were thinking of all the fun stuff their stores had done, had finally finished the immense stack of free comics they picked up--and were already making plans for next year. Meanwhile, in late October my local comic shops just sort of put these freebies out one day. Folk who stopped in to pick up comics or browse grabed a few and it was quiet. There was no huge line in the morning, cosplay was nonexistent, nary a fun contest, it was just another regular day everywhere.

There were some fun comics, but did anyone notice?

It is kind of a shame because I could see this Halloween-comic stuff potentially resulting in a big event. You could have a big comic-store Halloween party with all the costumes, scary-treats, and free comics--it would be quite fun. Instead, we just sort of had a few interesting and fun free comics come out that happened to be free. It all seems like a missed opportunity.

Am I wrong about all this? Did someone's store do a big event? Please do tell me in the comments if there were places that took advantage of the chance to have a big celebration or such.